“Peace at Least” – Rotary Connection (Cadet Concept/Chess – 1968)
Santa being a beautiful figment of our imaginations, it’s fun to hypothesize precisely how he becomes so jollily benevolent and heroically able to satisfy the wants and desires of everyone in the world in one single night. Songwriter Arthur Feldman swears Ol’ Santa smokes mistletoe…and singers Minnie Riperton and Sidney Barnes of psychedelic soul band Rotary Connection were just the hip kids to call him out on it to a sweeping symphonic soul score conjured by the peerless Charles Stepney (from the band’s counterculture Christmas classic LP, Peace).
